Vietnam Purges Local Officials 

By Ian Stewart 
Associated Press Writer 
Thursday, September 18, 1997; 2:10 p.m. EDT 

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Responding to widespread anti-corruption
protests, the central government has purged more than 50 local
officials, including Communist Party members, in rural northern
Vietnam. 

The purges follow months of growing unrest in the Thai Binh
province, 50 miles southeast of Hanoi, official media reported
Thursday. 

At least 11 government officials from Thai Binh commune, a small
district in the province, have been arrested and 30 more are being
investigated for corruption-related crimes, official media reported.
Twelve others were forced to resign in the province. 

The official Vietnam News said villagers are angry about unfair taxes,
the misuse of public money and the use of commune land as collateral
in deals, among other forms of corruption. 

The protests have spread to several other districts, where farmers and
laborers have staged sit-ins in front of police stations and government
offices. 

``It began with petitioners from 128 different communes marching to
administrative centers to lodge complaints about mismanagement of
public funds,'' the official Communist Party newspaper, The People,
said in a commentary. 

A Paris-based human rights group, Free Vietnam Alliance, says
hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested in connection with the
protests. Foreign journalists have been barred from visiting the area. 

Vietnam has a long standing history of rural unrest, through feudal
rule, French colonial control and on occasion against the communist
government. 

Several years ago, the central government virtually disbanded a
district level administration in central Thanh Hoa province, dismissing
more than 100 party members in the wake of similar unrest. 

More than 80 percent of Vietnam's 77 million people live in the
countryside.